Richard Arlin Walker
Special to ICT
Water springs out of the ground even in times of drought on the Tübatulabal Tribe’s ancestral lands, nourishing paintbrush, salt grass, snake lilies, piñon pines, and wetlands frequented by migratory birds.
To the Tübatulabal people, it is Kolo kam’ap, which means “the place of the duck,” where ancestors ground acorns and piñons in the bedrock mortars that are part of the landscape.
And for the first time since the mid-1800s, it again belongs to the Tübatulabal people.
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The Tübatulabal Tribe, which is headquartered in the southern Sierra Nevada community of Lake Isabella, California, acquired a portion of the former Fay Creek Ranch through a partnership with the state Wildlife Conservation Board and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, which funded the $5 million purchase.
The tribe was deeded about 1,240 acres with a conservation easement, with another 1,000 acres deeded to the Kern County Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit that works to preserve natural areas.
The acquisition, which brings to 2,250 acres the lands under tribal governance, is significant on several levels. The land borders Sequoia National Forest and a state ecological reserve.
“It’s really a beautiful area,” Tübatulabal Tribe Chairman Robert Gomez told ICT. “This is going to be our go-to place, our meeting place, our ceremonial event place, the nucleus of everything we do from now on.”
He added, “All of this is dedicated to the ancestors who sacrificed and lost all their land. It’s all for them and it’s all for the kids in the future.”
It’s the first time the state Wildlife Conservation Board has returned land to a tribe, Gomez said.
The site shows evidence of Tübatulabal habitation dating back at least 5,000 years — around the time when humans in the Near East began working with metal and writing was developed in Egypt and Sumer, in what is now south-central Iraq.
The land is also habitat for several endangered or threatened species, among them the California condor, yellow-billed cuckoo, southwestern willow flycatcher, Bell’s vireo and the Foothill yellow-legged frog, according to Western Rivers Conservancy, which initiated the acquisition.
Fay Creek, which flows through the lands as it feeds the south fork of the Kern River, is habitat for California golden trout and Kern River rainbow trout.
And the land, which ranges from 2,500 to 4,800 feet in elevation, provides a corridor for wildlife that may migrate upslope to seek refuge from the valley heat during summer, the conservancy reported. Year-round flowing water supports numerous birds and animals during spring and fall migrations, and the land features sagebrush, chaparral and wet meadow, as well as montane hardwood, pine and juniper forest.
The conservation easement states that no commercial or economic development can take place on the site, but the tribe can use existing structures — a ranch house, bunkhouse, barns, garages, and assorted outbuildings — for cultural and site management purposes.
Gomez said some of the uses will include an office, a cultural center, and storage of tools and vehicles for use in site management.
Gomez said the tribe’s management plan includes cultural resource protection, wildland fire fuel reduction, native plant restoration, and the harvesting of food plants and materials for use in making traditional items such as clap sticks, walking sticks and baskets.
The tribe will create public hiking trails and invite schools to Kolo kam’ap for cultural education.
Forming partnerships
The Tübatulabal people were displaced from Kolo kam’ap and other villages in their territory in about 1861, shortly after unratified treaties were signed with California’s Indigenous leaders and non-Native settlers began moving in and staking claims on Native lands.
In 1863, a U.S. Army cavalry regiment and settlers killed 35 Tübatulabal and Mono people on the right bank of the Kern River, not far from where the Lake Isabella Dam was later built.
Several Tübatulabal families — among them Chico, Miranda and White Blanket — received land allotments in 1887 under the Dawes Act. Title to those allotments are held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the ensuing years, the Tübatulabal people maintained ties to Kolo kam’ap.
“I was born and raised in Bakersfield but I had family that lived around that area,” Gomez said. “Elders remember going up there and working on the ranch.”
His grandfather harvested salt grass there, which he ground up and used as a food additive and as medicine.
“There’s a long history not only of non-Native but of Native connection to the land,” Gomez said.
Western Rivers Conservancy initiated the process of acquiring the ranch for conservation purposes in 2019 when the ranch was placed on the market.
“Reed Tollefson of the Audubon Society took me up there to meet WRC director Peter Colby,” Gomez said.
Niki Okuk, deputy director of CalStart, a national nonprofit that promotes the development of clean-transportation technology, privately advocated for the tribe. Okuk is of the Awakane Kamanuku tribe of Papua New Guinea.
“Niki called Reed and said the tribe needed to be involved, that this was a good opportunity for the tribe to look into buying part of that ranch,” said Gomez, a friend of Okuk’s. “We worked on that idea for a year or so. Then, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state agency, got on board. They liked that the tribe was involved. The Wildlife Conservation Board liked the idea and became the major funder.”
The Wildlife Conservation Board approved the funding in May and the acquisition was finalized on Aug. 31. “This is the first time the Wildlife Conservation Board has gotten involved in returning land to a tribe,” Gomez said.
A member of the family that sold the ranch said the tribe’s acquisition is “really good for the valley.”
“It’s going to serve a great purpose and the people who are involved are going to make a huge difference,” Chris Seller told KERO-TV in Bakersfield. “To watch it go back into the hands of the tribe, there’s no greater feeling in the world at this point.”
Federal recognition efforts
The acquisition could also boost the tribe’s efforts to gain federal recognition after its complicated history with the U.S. government.
The tribe’s 280 enrolled members are recognized by the BIA as Native Americans, and the Tübatulabal Tribe contracted with the Indian Health Service for water and wastewater improvements on the Miranda allotment in 2012.
But the tribe, as a political entity, is not federally recognized.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Gomez said. “On our trust lands there are signs that say, ‘No Trespassing — Bureau of Indian Affairs Trust Land.’ While we don’t have actual ownership of those trust lands, we represent them on any issues dealing with government agencies.”
The tribe is going through the federal acknowledgement process now, with the assistance of a grant from the Administration for Native Americans, a program office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Gomez said the tribe could submit its petition for federal acknowledgement in about a year.
Federal recognition would give the tribe authority to, among other things, make and enforce laws, establish land use regulations, and license and regulate activities within its jurisdiction. The tribe could also engage in initiatives to improve economic, educational and housing opportunities for its citizens.
“We operate as a sovereign nation,” Gomez said. “We’ve done a lot of work on the federal recognition issue, and now we have that land. I would think this would be a plus for us.”
AT A GLANCE
TÜBATULABAL TRIBE
Headquarters: Lake Isabella, California
Government: Five-member elected Tribal Council
Enrollment: 280+
Historical territory: Lower regions of the southern Sierra Nevada surrounding the North and South forks of the Kern River.
Current lands: Land allotments held in trust by the U.S. government; 1,240 acres of conservation lands.
Services: General government, enrollment, language, water resource management. Other services are provided by the local Tribal TANF Program office managed by the Owens Valley Career Development Center, which is funded by the Bishop Paiute, Big Pine Paiute and Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone tribes. Tribal members can access health care services at the Tule River Indian Health Center in Porterville, 91 miles away.
Other: The Tübatulabal Tribe is a member of several regional and state agencies that address water and transportation issues. The tribe has worked with federally recognized tribes and state agencies on repatriation of ancestral objects; one consultation resulted in a book, “Tribal Perspectives of Tübatulabal Tribal Baskets located at California State Parks Museum Resource Center.”
Notable tribal members: Steban Miranda (c. 1844-1942), rain maker and chief of the Tübatulabal Tribe; Domingo Bencomo (1890-1953), U.S. Army private during World War I who served on President Woodrow Wilson’s honor guard at the White House; Donna Miranda-Begay, first chairwoman of the Tübatulabal Tribe (2006-2012); Rocky Stone, first Tübatulabal Tribe member elected honorary mayor of Whiskey Flat, California (2014), who used the position to raise awareness about the Tübatulabal Tribe, its history, and its efforts to obtain federal recognition.
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